The unsolved Yuvraj Walmiki puzzle: Why is the talented youngster overlooked?

Yuvraj Walmiki (R)

The absence of Yuvraj Walmiki from the original 48 Indian men’s hockey probables (which has now been pruned down to 33) for the Asia Cup camp was a bit hard to swallow.

The first selection assignment of the newly-appointed BP Govinda-chaired selection committee put a damper on Yuvraj’s international career.

While nobody was really surprised with the axing of under-performing drag-flicker Sandeep Singh, the non-inclusion of the Mumbai lad prompted a big ‘why’ from hockey buffs.

His omission was a shocker for some, if not an over-exaggeration. The general line of thinking was that how can someone like Yuvraj Walmiki be not good enough to be among the 48 best hockey players of the country.

To be fair to Yuvraj Walmiki, his non-inclusion for the Asia Cup camp will do no good to his morale. After all, the Mumbai boy is just 22 and youngsters can lose their way if not handled carefully. In India it’s too much to expect a hockey selector give a pep talk to a dropped player. Quite often, a player is left guessing as to why he has been given the chop.

A dropped player in India often struggles to recall if he had indeed rubbed a hockey selector or an official the wrong way inadvertently. We have seen so many players with raw talent over the years being handed a raw deal for reasons best known to the hockey bosses.

One is living in a fool’s paradise if we think Yuvraj is not talented enough to make it to the 48 probables for the Asia Cup. The youngster, who announced his arrival on the national stage during the 2011 Asian Champions Trophy in Ordos, China, scoring three goals, including a crucial penalty stroke conversion during the nail-biting shootout against arch-rivals Pakistan in the final clash, has seen the odds stacked against him in the last one year or so.

The zippy forward was forced to miss the 2012 London Olympics, where his place was earlier considered a certainty, on account of a hamstring injury. Until then, Yuvraj was in the good books of the selectors and was picked for the 34th Champions Trophy in Melbourne and also picked for the 2nd Asian Champions Trophy but the downhill started when he was dumped at the eleventh hour along with two others – SK Uthappa and Gurmail Singh for the Doha event.

It must be said that Yuvraj is quite regular on the microblogging site Twitter and during his playing days for India, was seen as the modern face of Indian hockey. One is not sure whether his ‘tweeting ways’ had any relation to him being axed. But in India even that factor can’t be overlooked.

Yuvraj Walmiki

Of course, one has to understand that the previous selection committee ignored him for the 2012 Asian Champions Trophy, Hockey World League Round 2 event, 22nd Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and the Hockey World League Round 3 event, while the new selection committee did the same with him while picking the 48 Asia Cup probables.

One is not trying to see a pattern into his exclusion, nor do we know if the Mumbaikar has any attitude problems that would have ruffled the selectors’ feathers.

It is learnt that outgoing coach Michael Nobbs was keen to have him in the 48 Asia Cup probables, but the selectors were opposed to the idea, and no one knows why? On his part, Yuvraj must keep working hard on his game and stay match-fit and hope for a national recall.

Feel sorry for the young lad!